In at least some game engines, state machines are used for animating characters. A state machine is usually specific to a given character, and comprises animation clips which each correspond to a state for the given character.
Control or contextual rigging techniques are also usually used for fixing animation clips while game is playing. In some embodiments, a generic control rig is used for all of the animation clips. For example, the generic control rig comprises different parts for rigging a leg, an arm, a face, etc. Each time the state machine outputs an animation clip, an analysis is performed to determine whether each part of the generic control rig must be applied to the animation clip, which requires important computer processing unit (CPU) and memory usage. In other embodiments, several control rigs each directed to rig a different part of a character are used. For example, a first control rig is used for rigging an arm, a second control rig is used for rigging a leg, a third control rig is used for rigging a face, etc. Each time the state machine outputs an animation clip, an analysis is performed to determine whether each control rig must be applied to the output animation clip, which also requires important CPU and memory usage.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and system for rigging an animation clip.